So, writer's block can last three years, apparently.

But it doesn't matter how long it takes, this is going to have a proper end, sooner or later.

Really later.

Still no beta and I don't care.

Chapter 8

"Juuuuuviaaa ~~"

She blinked several times.

"What were you spacing out about?" Lisanna shouted with arched eyebrows.

The blue haired girl glanced at her friend. "I-I just couldn't see you guys" she lied with a shrug.

The white haired girl frowned. "But Levy is just in front you-" she started as Juvia quickly approached the petite girl at the counter. Juvia was mentally thanking Lisanna; if it weren't for her, she would still be standing and staring at that in the dance floor, people dancing and pushing her from time to time.

"So, the girls aren't back yet" she commented to Levy but didn't hear what she said back; she wanted to keep an eye on them but a few heads were in the middle. What was Gray doing with that girl? And on top of that, this one girl she's recently bumped into at uni.

"Hey, Juvia" Lisanna stood at her left when she reached their place. "We were just saying that you never drink a single drop of alcohol" she pouted.

Levy nodded from her right. "Wouldn't be funny a slightly-drunk Juvia?" her eyebrows went up and down.

The blue haired girl between them sighed and rolled her eyes. People always mocked her about not liking alcohol and several friends of her constantly tried to make her drink at least a sip just to see her disgusted face. "Already at it?" she said, her blue orbs trying once more to catch a glimpse over Levy's head.

"This is what we are going to do: I will order a 'sex on the bitch' and you are going to taste it"

"S-sex on the beach?" she stuttered glancing back at Lisanna, who was already talking to the barman. As she looked over her friend's blue mane, the couple next to Levy stood up and walked away from the counter, and even when there was one guy still in the middle she could tell that the spot were Gray and the pink haired girl were before was empty. They were gone, and for some reason, Lisanna's voice saying 'sex' once and over again echoed in her mind.

She stared down at her hands on the wood. It couldn't be, could it? Gray leaving the place with a girl with that intention? What if they were already on a cab? What if his hand was on her waist at that very moment? He had never done it before but then again there's always a first time.

Calm down, she mumbled to herself. There's nothing you can do.

"What the-" Juvia turned to Levy as her friend squeaked. Large hands were pulling down her skirt as the blunette tried to hold it in its place.

"That's out of character, shrimp" Gajeel said folding his arms over his chest. "A nerd's skirt should end right at her knees"

Juvia was so uneasy for the last few minutes that she didn't even realize Levy's skirt was higher since the last time she could remember. She narrowed her eyes at the black haired man. "Nii-san, just what the heck are you doing?"

"Putting her into character again" he answered without faltering as Levy turned into a tomato.

"Gajeel, you are such an idiot" the petite girl said and ran away from them.

They watched her lose herself in the crowd. Juvia sighed; she was not really in the mood for this. "You can't go around pulling girl's clothes down because you feel like it"

Lisanna put an arm around Gajeel's neck. "I'll have you know, you are not the first one trying to do that" she snickered.

"W-what?" the guy blinked down at her.

"Or were they actually trying to make it go higher?" the white haired girl said with wiggling eyebrows.

Gajeel turned red. "WHAT?!"

Lisanna laughed. "I bet she went to the bathroom. I'll go for her and make sure she wears her skirt properly" she waved a hand turning around. Gajeel sensed the menace in her words and followed suit, mumbling to himself.

Juvia sighed deeply; she was all on her own again. She glanced at the damned spot out of the corner of her eyes, her chin on her palm. She heard the barman placing the 'sex on the beach' in front of her and looked down at it. Well, it won't hurt. Besides, I should busy my mind with something.

She was taking the first sip when someone leaned in the counter beside her. "This is really amusing; Juvia Lockser actually drinking on her own free will".

She gulped down the beverage and the burning feeling in her throat was amplified by the sight of Gray smirking at her. "I should take a photo for the record; such a pity there isn't enough light"

Juvia felt many things at that moment. At first, relief was the strongest, for he was still there; then it was gladness, for he was still there with her; anger flashed by, quickly replaced by curiosity about the pink haired girl. Finally, the one thing that made her pulse go crazy and a wave of heat go from her head to foot, the one thing she could no longer deny: love.

She looked down at the drink. How could she have been so blind, no, stubborn? It had always been there, if she looked back at their friendship. Ever since they were at Natsu's birthday party and Gray came near her because she was awkwardly standing alone, ever since she talked about the manga she was reading at the moment and he laughed because he was into it too; maybe it started with a hey, I can get along with this guy, but it was currently a hey, I really get along with this guy.

Gray tilted her head, raising an eyebrow. "Juvia?"

She looked up at him and felt herself blushing. "Lisanna ordered it" she said looking down at her hands.

"Hmm, but you did take a sip, right?" he smirked but didn't get a response. He stared at her friend for a moment. "Something wrong?"

Juvia glanced at him. She could ask him, right? Just as friends. Who was that girl you were talking to? She could simply say, but deep down she knew there was no way in hell she could do it.

Gray was still looking at her but she couldn't make a move. "Are you feeling well?"

"I-I'm fine. W-what are you-" she stuttered when his fingers were on her head.

"How large is your bump?" he asked inspecting her skull.

She instantly grasped his hand to put it down. "I-I told you I'm fine" she looked down at them; up until that moment doing something like that didn't unsettle her. Falling in love was actually frustrating.

Gray looked at her for a little longer before shrugging. "If you say so" he finally said and left.

Wait. She was actually pretty rude, wasn't she? He was worried but she was so flustered and still thinking about the pink haired girl that she nearly slapped away his hand. And now she was all alone again and in top of that, with a 'sex on the beach' in her hands.

Next morning, Juvia woke up early even though she barely slept a couple of hours. She had to catch up with her study or else, getting into that university was not going to happen.

After lunch, she tried to start with chemistry but whenever she read a formula she thought about the pink haired girl who shared that class with her. Being that obsessed with her made her feel a little crazy and a huge idiot. She cursed herself for a while, already thinking about Gray and her realization from last night.

Her friends had been right all this time; she liked him. Then what was she going to do, what was going to be her first move? She couldn't just go and 'confess' while blushing as if real life was a shoujo; what if he turned her down and she had to ran away crying? That surely could happen since she was pretty bad handling difficult situations where strong feelings were involved.

And then she started wondering… what if he actually reciprocated her love? She pictured Gray saying 'I love you too' and her heart nearly exploded, she even covered her face. She had to find out what he thought, how he felt, about her. She had to find a way out of the friend-zone.

And damn well she would. She was already on it, halfway his house. She would 'casually drop by' and ask him to do something to kill the afternoon -even though she could be studying as she was supposed to-. She needed to watch the subject, pay close attention of his actions around her, and all of that had to be in private. She needed some proof, the slightest clue about Gray liking her back before she could actually tell him about the way she felt.

"Oh, Juvia, come in" Ultear smiled at her as she opened the door to let her in.

Juvia stepped into the living room thanking her. "Is your brother in his room?"

Ultear shook her head as she headed to the kitchen. "Oh no, he's not back from the cemetery yet. Something to drink?" she offered leaving her alone in the living room.

Juvia's heart beat faster. What was Gray doing at the graveyard? "D-did something bad… happen?" she asked loud enough for Ultear to hear from the kitchen.

"Not really, it's just the normal visit" The black haired girl came back with a glass and stretched it out to Juvia, whose eyes were still wide and her mouth hanging a little. "W-wait, you didn't know?" Ultear's eyes widened too when the blunette didn't answer. "Holly crap; shit, shit, shit" she started mumbling placing the glass on the table next to them. "Gray is going to kill me"

"I'm home" the raven haired guy said while closing the door. He stopped on his track when he saw Ultear biting her nail and looking at him from the couch. "What's wrong?" he asked.

His sister put down her hand. "Gray, I'm sorry" she started and said guy frowned at her apologies because he had no idea what it was for. "Juvia came looking for you and I told her, I had to after mentioning it by accident".

Gray blinked at her, taking a brief moment to realize what she was talking about. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Don't worry" he said taking out his phone. What a welcoming. "I will call her" he said already looking in his contact list.

"Actually..." Ultear looked down at her feet as Gray arched an eyebrow. "She's up there, in your bedroom"

Gray blinked for a little longer that time. He would have said 'You are kidding, right?' if it weren't for Ultear wasn't even looking at him. "Fuck" he said, putting the phone on his pocket and going up the stairs.

Juvia was hugging her legs tightly, her forehead resting on her knees and her back against the wall. She glanced up when he opened the door, and they exchanged the briefest look she could remember. He stood on the door frame a little longer before sitting next to her on the bed.

"Juvia" he said after a while, just as she said "I would have never known". He fell silent and she stared at the ground. "Somehow, Ur, Ultear and you look alike. A lot" she unfolded her legs, finally looking up at him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He was the one averting his eyes this time, scratching the back of his head. "Jeez, don't get mad, please. It's not like everyone knows" he mumbled. "I had only told Natsu about it"

Juvia stared down at the tip of her feet. "I thought that you trusted me" she mumbled back. She couldn't help feeling a little betrayed and angry at him, even when she shouldn't be. "Was I wrong?"

Gray looked at her as if she had grown another head. "Of course you weren't. Juvia, you are my best friend and you know it" he said quite annoyed for having to state the obvious.

At any other time she would have worried about this, she would have wondered if his words meant there was no room for anything else between them, but at that moment she could only say "Then why didn't you tell me about your parents? Why did I have to find out just because it slipped from Ultear's lips?"

"Tsk. Why should I have told you? So you could start crying and feeling pity for me because my parents are dead? So whenever the words mum, dad, family or any synonym were mentioned you could worry about me hearing them? That's what people normally do, even Ur and Ultear; would you have been any different?" he narrowed his eyes at her and she was taken aback by his harsh tone.

Without uttering a word, she stared down at her feet again, clenching her fists. She would have, without a doubt, it was in her nature. But even if it was true… she was an open book. She always showed her feelings and spoke up her thoughts, especially to him, someone she spent a lot of time with. Gray not telling her his biological parents died in an accident made her think she didn't actually know him that well, maybe they were not as close as she had thought.

The raven haired guy knew he went too far. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Did she tell you the full story?" he asked. Juvia answered shaking her head slowly. "When I was seven, my life turned suddenly dramatic as in any book, movie, manga or anime. It was Halloween, I was at Ur's house playing with Ultear, waiting for my parents to come back from their business trip. They had left me under her care because she was my mother's best friend. I don't even remember what I was dressed up like and as lame as it sounds, I guess my aversion towards costumes started that night".

"They didn't show up and it was getting too late; we ended up going to bed. Next morning when the phone rang we found out they had had an accident; some drunk bastard crashed with them when he ignored a red light. I can't even imagine how fast he was going; his car burnt while theirs turned upside down"

A chill went down her spine as she listened. Gray was so far away from her; she could tell he was going through all of it all over again. One of her favorite phrases from Wuthering Heights was on her mind. "My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning". She was now fully aware of what Cathy meant when she said those words. She felt her heart breaking bit by bit as he spoke and she would have given anything to be the one suffering and narrating the story instead of him.

"And that's it. It may be a short one but that's exactly because it only takes a few seconds to feel you are dead even though you are not the one buried" he was back there with her, onyx meeting blue when they stared at each other. "Oh, and this is their parting gift" he said, showing her his necklace with a silver cross. "My mother gave it to my father on their first anniversary, and he gave it to me before they left for some reason. That's why I never take it out"

Okay, she couldn't hold them back anymore: big round tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared at the cross and started to whimper. Gray sighed and smiled sympathetically. "And this is exactly why I never told you about it, Rainy-woman".

"I-I'm sorry, it's j-just-" she sobbed, frantically rubbing her eyes. "It's just so sad" she blinked up at him. "I'm sorry, you were right, I shouldn't have known about this, I'm such an idiot, I can't help crying at everything"

Gray chuckled quietly. "Hey, hey, it's alright-"

She swiftly turned to look at him, folding her legs. "It's not alright" she roared, surprising him. "I'm really sorry about this. It's already a hard day and I made it harder" she lowered her voice. "I'm really sorry about your parents, of course. Gosh, I feel so bad, I should have go home when Ultear told me" she dried her tears with the back of her hands.

Gray kept staring at her as she rubbed her eyes over and over again: she could really cry. He leaned forward and his forehead rested against her shoulder. "Juvia, stop crying already" he mumbled annoyed. The blunette blinked down at him. "Shouldn't you be the one comforting me, not the other way around?"

She laughed with him; he was right. Even when they were this close and she felt that she was going to pass out at any second, she was his friend. Her right arm embraced his shoulders. "How lame would be if I use a cliché since I don't know what to say?" she asked.

"Which one would that be?" he mumbled.

She started caressing her blueish locks. "Your parents would be so proud of you"

Gray chuckled. "Thought you could do better"

Juvia glanced at the window; sunset. She placed her cheek against the top of his head. "... it's the truth" she whispered but he didn't say a thing. He was awfully quiet. "Gray, are you-?"

"I didn't..." he started muttering, "really sleep with the party and going to the graveyard"

Her lips curled up; she was quiet sleepy too. And she was honestly really happy hugging him.

Juvia laid on the bed, pulling him down with her and just like that, they fell asleep.

Till next century guys